This invention generally relates analyzing pedestrian congestion, and more specifically to providing one or more measures of pedestrian congestion.
More and more, smart transportation systems integrate the “transport multi-modality” where a commuter can use multiple transportation means such as cars, bicycles, busses, trains and walking. Walking is very important because people can almost never assume that all the other transportation means will bring a person to the final destination without having to do at least some walking. Understanding the walking conditions, or the “fluidity” of walking, is important so that personal transportation journey advisors can guide people precisely and efficiently.
The time needed for a given pedestrian P to walk from point A to point B depends on three factors: the distance between the two points A and B; the walking characteristics of the pedestrian P; and the fluidity of the pedestrian traffic. The walking characteristics of the pedestrian mainly relate to his or her regular walking speed v. The fluidity of the pedestrian traffic is a measure of the amount of obstacles (such as other pedestrians) that prevent a person from freely walking or marching.